1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved apparatus for taking photographs of cavities of the body. More specifically, it relates to an improved gastric camera for safely and efficiently photographing the gastric cavity and for developing said photographs.
It has long been desired to obtain clear and highly defined photographs of body cavities utilizing equipment which can be safely and efficiently employed by those such as physicians or surgeons who may be unskilled in the art of photography. In particular, it has proven difficult to obtain sharp pictures of such internal cavities as the stomach while operating under the vigorous sanitary and safety constraints of a modern operating room or theatre.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices for photographing body cavities and the like have been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,828,141 and No. 2,349,932, the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. Such devices utilize a camera with a dedicated flash or light source which is carried at the end of a flexible tube or catheter. The flash unit has generally been plugged into a wall socket through an appropriate transformer and switch. This assembly has been deemed unsafe for modern operating rooms, in view of the danger of sparking with a possible resulting explosion of flammable oxygen or anaesthesia gas and the threat of introducing unsafe current levels into the body cavity which surges can cause shock or even electrocution. Such problems were engendered by the need for producing intense illumination required, in part, for the relatively slow film previously available.
In addition, the film carriers or spiders for such cameras were individually loaded with film strips in a darkroom and the film-carrying spiders were immediately inserted into the camera assembly to prevent the film strips from becoming dislodged or lost. Thereafter, the entire camera unit had to be sterilized. After exposure, the film strips had to be individually unloaded from their retaining spiders in a darkroom and separately developed. This was a laborious and inefficient procedure. The film strips are very small, difficult to handle and easily misplaced.
Operation of such gastric cameras was unduly time consuming and difficult. The body cavity to be photographed would be distended by introduction of air to obtain a clear image. This procedure previously required use of a control bulb and a press bulb as an air injector. Such bulbs can be dangerous, since they provide no indication of the degree to which the body cavity has been inflated.
In addition, after the body cavity had been properly distended, an actuating mechanism was manually operated to open the camera shutters and initiate the flash. If the manual air injection and camera operations were not closely coordinated, then the photographs were unsatisfactory. In addition, high current levels for the flash were unsafe both for the patient and for others nearby in the operating room.